I would like to begin by putting on record my sincerest thanks and appreciation for all those carers and palliative care workers who worked tirelessly during the COVID pandemic and made huge personal sacrifices to ensure that those they were looking after received the best possible end-of-life care. The extreme working pressures that COVID brought, unfortunately, fell upon relatively few, and we must not forget that many people suffered in a way that many of us didn't.

We all know that the Welsh Government is against holding a specific Welsh COVID inquiry because it does not want to admit that mistakes were made, and it is frightened of another damning statistic that will show Wales as the worst performer in the UK. But the truth is those mistakes are only ever truly mistakes if we don't learn from them, and the only way we can learn from them is if we know and understand how and why they were caused and what better solutions could have been provided instead. COVID was an unprecedented time in recent history, I think this Welsh Government is worried about how their performance will be viewed in the media, and, because of this, the opportunity will be lost to truly understand what improvements need to be made. COVID was an enormous stress test for our NHS and the systems and ways of working that we had in place. I think it is foolish not to thoroughly assess the response by the Welsh Government with a Wales-only inquiry, because the context of the pandemic in Wales was different to other nations in the UK. We need to move forward with action plans, such as those for palliative care, that would help us to respond better if there were ever another global pandemic.

This debate today is exceptionally important. I would like to thank my colleagues for producing such a thorough report. One of the most striking observations for me was that many people suffered needlessly because infection control systems for moving and isolating patients had not been predetermined, but rather were decided upon by constantly updated guidance, which meant that the families of and those receiving palliative care were left to needlessly experience the devastating impacts of isolation. This is why it is vital that the Government now works closely with the palliative care sector to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure palliative care is at the heart of plans for future pandemics.

Another feature of the report that concerned me is the projection of the needs for increased palliative care in the future. The report shows that levels of palliative care needs during the pandemic were not expected until 2040. Whilst I can see that we could not necessarily foresee the need for palliative care reaching this level, it does reveal that, on the whole, there is a systematic need to now build into the palliative care system options for rapidly increasing capacity and improving death literacy within communities in Wales by encouraging higher levels of advanced planning for end of life, alongside improving support for bereaved families.

Finally, in light of my questioning yesterday regarding the need to improve digitisation within the NHS, something I felt the First Minister dismissed, I would like to mention that, in terms of palliative care, the Welsh Government needs to, as a matter of urgency, develop an electronic patient record with advanced and future care preferences and decisions. The families of those receiving palliative care are often in a complete state of distress, and having care preferences recorded as far in advance as possible will be vital in helping to protect the most vulnerable. I fully support the motion presented in this debate and all the calls it makes, and I would urge everyone here to also support it. Thank you.